Meanwhile, in the strange racket that was (and is) the music
industry, the aforementioned Barry Earl and Michael Gudinski were
setting about collecting bands to record for Suicide. You may
think and rightly so that a new label working a new vein of music
might have a fresh approach, but this was not to be. It seems
that Suicide were first intent on monopolising these new bands.
The first step was contacting people like Keith Glass for phone
numbers of people in bands, Gudinski and Earl knew nobody and
apparently knew nothing about Melbourne punk either. Everyone
contacted was invited to audition and around a dozen bands did
so. Most, if not all were offered contracts immediately. It seems
the only consideration was that auditionees could play some semblance
of a set. There was certainly no considered judgement of any of
these groups. Most, if not all were offered contracts and signed
them. None of Suicide's objectives is revealed by examination
of these contracts, which were exposed in short order by alert
hacks such as Clinton Walker and Bruce Milne. But the initial
expose came from News. The Faraday street four were the first
opposition Suicide encountered. They were invited to audition
at Mushroom HQ, an interesting location given that Suicide was
publicly claiming no relation to Mushroom, despite the Gudinski
connection.
On the day, Barry Earl watched News play for around ten minutes,
then pushed a contract across the table. He wanted it signed there
and then. Rather than be rushed, Gavin wanted to take the contract
away for further perusal. Earl didn't like it and began blustering
at them about only needing to sign the contract and be done with
it. As if to arouse further suspicion, he then called down a Mushroom
accountant who gave the band a spiel about what a good deal was
before them. News took a walk with the contract and showed it
to a legal advisor. He wrote in suggested amendments and News
took this back to Suicide/Mushroom as a bargaining point. Earl
flatly refused to negotiate any point and wanted nothing else
to do with the band. "I wanted them to put changes in and
do it up-front. What we got for being up-front was 'forget it!'
and we were out in the cold. Suicide thought they could make a
killing. I think they stepped over the bounds of decency"
[Gavin].
The intended Killing was in the contract, which would tie the artist to Suicide for a year and not oblige them to do anything significant for a band as Clinton Walker wrote: "Right from the outset, Suicide's intentions appeared pretty obvious. Monopoly. It's simple: the more bets they placed, the greater chance of picking a winner. And the losers? With a contract that demands only one single a year, it's not a heavy obligation, is it? And it's the only obligation, no promotion, no live gigs, no nothing so Suicide can effectively control anyone." [Pulp, 1978]. The Suicide contracts also offered what was surely the lowest royalty rates in Australia at the time in years to come, Gudinski defended Suicide, maintaining that its mode of doing business was quite kosher. Ram stirred up a lot of nonsense about those contracts. The Boys Next Door were the only band to be shown interest by any other record company. All those bands would never have been recorded or have seen the light of day. The whole Suicide thing was pretty adventurous episode to be undertaken by anyone and those acts got a chance because of it." If nothing else, this statement indicates a total ignorance of the independent ethic.." Pressed further, Gudinski admitted in the same interview: "If I was manager of an act, I wouldn't sign the contract....But I wouldn't be managing a band of that capability at this stage." [Roadrunner, 15/5/79]. Says it all, really. When the dust settled through February, it appeared Suicide had managed to round up almost every band in Melbourne. From the less significant Negatives to Teenage Radio Stars and even Jab.
Having some doubts Young Charlatans had declined to sign, joining News on the outer. Among those that signed, there was little interest in stories from the News camp on their experience of Suicide. Alleging lack of suss and plain jealousy, the Suicide bands began sticking together and thereby factionalising what had been an open and unified scene the mutual suspicion was furthered when News particularly Gavin accused the Suicide acts of losing sight of independence. They had copped out. "We lost credibility when we didn't sign the Suicide contract because even though the punks in Melbourne wanted to be anti-establishment, they only wanted to be anti-establishment as long as it would increase their image, but not once it began interfering with the money making and star trips. We immediately became the ideological enemies of the bands that had signed. They thought we were stupid and hated them. Everyone thought we hated them in those days, so they hated us back" [Gavin, Juke, 30/6/79]. As the controversy broke, Suicide bands were sometimes quick to stick up for the firm. Sydney punk-zine Spurt questioned members of Jab about the division in Melbourne punk: "(News) had their opportunity and they blew it themselves. I think Suicide is a great company. It's a new company and it's really buzzing. It's split the Melbourne scene though; the bands that are on Suicide, and those that aren't" [Ash Wednesday]. "I think there's a lot of jealousy involved. Melbourne was wide open for someone to come in and do something with. No one actually did until Barry Earl came along and he did it all in a very organised manner. Then, all the others who had wanted to do it were very jealous" [Johnny Crash]. In Mr Crash's case, it seems he was mistaking a self-assumed right to a sole concession on Melbourne punk for an 'organised approach'.
Suicide's manner was as organised and intelligent as the British
industry's A& R dragnet over Liverpool after the Beatles first
hit, signing anything with a guitar and long hair. This has been
a constant recurrence in business behaviour throughout the existence
of Rock & Roll; no company wants to miss the next big thing.
This involves perceiving many new developments in music as essentially,
fads; and those who value independence; like News; would have
to be frozen out. "News was very into the independent ethic,
not signing with Mushroom type things. We were into the punk ethic,
we wanted to get the independent scene going" [John Murphy].
Few would dispute that Suicide was a divisive intrusion in Melbourne.
Bruce Milne editorialised extensively against them: "They
managed to split the punk scene down the middle. Before Suicide
came along, all the bands used to get on well together because
unity was vital if punk was to properly establish itself as a
musical alternative. After the arrival of Suicide, the two factors;
Suicide & non-Suicide bands; didn't talk to one another. There
was a mutual suspicion and antagonism that didn't exist before"
[Roadrunner, 15/5/79].
After all this, Suicide didn't last long ... it was a spent
force by 1979. Their only releases were a handful of singles and
the heavily hyped Lethal Weapons compilation. None of the records
were very good; any worth in the bands that did sign was undiscovered
by Suicide. Gudinski and Earl were issuing records into a void,
to find, then exploit the market for this music. "As soon
as the Suicide thing came through, musical growth was arrested;
not only the naive bands like Teenage Radio Stars, but bands like
the Boys Next Door, and anyone else who was involved. It obviously
wasn't a creative arrangement between them and Suicide" [Gavin].
Happily going their own way, News became involved in a 'Son of
Punk Gunk' for 28th February, at Bailey Hall in Richmond. Boys
Next Door and Teenage Radio Stars were to play between TchTchTch
and News", who would close the show. Bruce Milne was co-organising
the event. Only days before the date, Boys Next Door and Teenage
Radio Stars pulled out. In a mild panic, News and Milne had no
time for detective work, but it seemed these bands withdrew after
a nudge from Suicide. As if to prove it, the following months
were to see more meddling in News live work via an organised campaign
of misinformation and harassment. All the while, News were doing
what they saw as their duty in letting people know about the Suicide
scam. "We had month after month of anonymous phone calls
to Newspaper offices changing Gig Guides at the last minute. We
suspected Suicide and rather than not tell anyone about it, we
warned off other bands. We felt we had a responsibility to get
to other bands and to tell them of our Lawyers advice. People
were very interested as no-one knew details of Suicides' working
practices at that time. Even people working in the Music industry
were in the dark as they had so little to do with musicians affairs"
[Gavin].
Deciding to throw some shit back, members of News began calling
Gig Guides and inserting changes of their own. Amid allegations
from one side, and protestations of innocence from the other,
the Age finally took action and ruled that all changes to the
Gig guide (out each Friday) had to be in writing. The problem
disappeared. As for Son of Punk Gunk, it went ahead successfully.
On the night, TchTchTch played longer and a new combo from the
Brunswick area. The Proles, took the middle slot.
From here, News were ever more determined to establish themselves independently, to consolidate and expand their existent following intensively and hopefully regular gigs had to be got. The Tiger Room in Richmond now had regular 'New Wave' nights, but guess who was running them ... "Barry Earl had a situation there, he was running these punk nights and if you weren't on his label or bowing down to him, you weren't allowed to play there. It ended up being JAB and Teenage Radio Stars alternating, Boys next Door sometimes" [John Murphy]. It is also worth noting that Suicide acts were picking up additional work through Premier, Mushrooms' live booking arm (Mushroom claims no connection between the two companies in spite of the fact that they share accountants, lawyers, bands, building & staff).